Cody is a yellow lab mix of something. She is also completely strange.

Of course, most of my family’s dogs are totally strange. We are such dog people, though, and we encourage our dogs to explore their dogginess, within appropriate boundaries, and this leads to dogs with uniquely strong personalities.

Cody, though, is one of the most interesting dog souls I have had the pleasure of spending time with.

My Mom picked her up at the humane society a few weeks ago. Our family always goes for strays or rescue dogs. Not only are these dogs in need of homes, but even the most basic of high school biology teaches you that what the AKC calls “pure bred” is a dog much more likely to have health problems than a mix-breed.

And, of course, a bit of genetic dice roll yields some interesting traits.

Cody loves fruits and vegetables. In this picture, Cody is nosing her way through the blackberry patch.

She sniffs out only the ripest of blackberries and gently picks and eats them with a certain bit of calm air that is rare to find in a 2.5 year old dog.

Cody has her side of the row of blackberry bushes and my mom picks from the other.

It is amusing to watch as my mom and Cody head down the blackberry row, one on each side, picking berries.

Cody also enjoys peaches, blueberries, and other fruits and vegetables.

As calm as Cody appears in these two pictures, she is also quite the action packed dog…

When we arrived, Cody immediately took to Roger.

Within a few minutes of meeting each other, the two were running about and playing with wild abandon.

And when Roger’s attention turned to hunting for critters, Cody was right there with him. She would follow him on the rocks all about the pond.

When Roger eventually fell in the pond — it was inevitable — Cody looked back at us as if to say “Uh… boss? Is this OK?” or, as my sister interprets it, “I DIDN’T DO IT!!!”.

Throughout or week here, Cody would regularly check on Roger to make sure everything was OK or to simply see if anything exciting was going on.

Having a good bit of yellow lab, Cody — of course — loves to play fetch.

And, not surprisingly, fetch often involves water.

The kids — Roger & Natalya, a distant cousin who was coincidentally in town — had a grand time tossing the ball in the water and then racing Cody to the ball.

Cody generally won, but a simple “drop it”, whether on shore or in the water, and she would release it for the next round.

Interestingly, Cody seems to be a “sight retriever”. That is, if she sees where a ball is heading, she can find it.

However, if it involves sniffing something out, she really doesn’t do so well. It seems to be a training thing as she clearly has a good nose.

Cody also enjoys boating.

Our cousin Curt put out a handful of catfish floats (floating bottles w/weight and baited hooks to catch catfish) a few days ago.

Of course, these need to be checked every now and then.

On the first trip out, I invited Cody to join me in the boat. She hopped right in, took up a spot in the front and was quite happy to be paddled around the pond as we took care of the catfish floats.

Since then, if anyone heads to the boat, Cody hops right in. She is perfectly calm in the boat, checking stuff out.

If the boat happens to lean one way or another, she might use it as an opportunity to take a drink, but otherwise is just about the most ideal boating partner one could ask for.

For all her calm demeanor, Cody can also be quite the action dog.

And she loves the pond.

Roger and I spent a good hour throwing the ball and then jumping with Cody into the pond off of this particular point!

Hey, my codydog is pretty strange too! We live on an island, with lots of bogland and heath and she, along with her step-sister Pegilulu, just loves to run, jump in water-filled ditches or swim in the sea. Maybe its something in the cody name. She can tell when one of our cars is coming from a very long way, up go the ears, the tail flies from side to side and she zooms to the back door in readiness. And she just loves blackberries, picks them from the wild bushes that grow all around here.